As compared with standard incandescent lights, fluorescent lights, and halogen lights, the main benefits of using light-emitting diode (LED) technology for lighting applications is longer life and less energy usage. For example, a 40-watt incandescent bulb or a 10- to 12-watt compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb is needed to generate 450 lumens of light. By contrast, a 4- to 5-watt LED bulb can generate 450 lumens of light. Further, with respect to lifetime, one can expect to replace an incandescent bulb more than 40 times and a CFL bulb about 5 times over a period of 50 k hours. By contrast, one can expect to replace an LED bulb only once over the same period of time.
Unfortunately, the cost of implementing LED technology for lighting applications has been prohibitive to widespread adoption. As significant advances are being made in LED technology, however, it is now becoming cost-effective to use such technology for general lighting applications.